Tag: cayenne

Categories
Main Dish Soup

Take a ‘leek’ at the recipe for some savory potato soup

Leek and potato soup has a velvety mouthfeel from potatoes and heavy cream, along with a deep, delicious onion flavor from freshly sauteed leeks.
Leek and potato soup has a velvety mouthfeel from potatoes and heavy cream, along with a deep, delicious onion flavor from freshly sauteed leeks.

Back when I started this column 10 years ago, I thought people would be coming out of the woodwork to offer up recipes for me to try. I signed off each week with a request for submissions.

In that first year, I think I received about five or six.

I learned quickly that people don’t like to share their favorite recipes—at least not with the general, newspaper-reading public.

I get it. Recipes can certainly be something sacred for a lot of us. They’re often more than food—they’re memories. I try to remember that when someone sends me a family favorite, something that they regularly make in their own kitchen. That person isn’t just sending me a list of ingredients and instructions; they’re sharing a piece of themselves, and that’s something special.

If you haven’t guessed, I don’t have a link from a blog to tell you where to find the original of the recipe I tried this week. Instead, this recipe was shared with me by our dear family friend, Jim Kanady. I added garlic to my version, and I used my blender a bit, too.

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Potato Leek Soup

Leek and potato soup has a velvety mouthfeel from potatoes and heavy cream, along with a deep, delicious onion flavor from freshly sautéed leeks.
Course Main Course, Soup
Keyword butter, cayenne, fresh garlic, garlic, heavy cream, leek, potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks butter
  • 2 leeks sliced
  • salt pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste
  • 4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 quart chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 4 cups Yukon gold potatoes diced
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • oyster crackers for serving

Instructions

  • Heat a Dutch oven or stockpot with a lid over medium heat and add the butter. Once the butter is melted, add the leeks, salt, pepper and cayenne, and saute until the leeks are soft (10 to 15 minutes). Add the garlic and saute for about two minutes until it is lightly browned and fragrant.
  • Stir in the cornstarch until it is completely soaked up in the butter, and then pour in the chicken broth, stirring well.
  • Add the potatoes and turn the burner to high. Once the soup is boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and pour in the cream. Place the lid on the pot and let the soup simmer for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. Stir it occasionally while it simmers.
  • Taste the soup to see if it is seasoned to your liking. If you want it a bit thicker, use an immersion blender or regular blender to partially blend the soup, making sure to leave some potato chunks.
  • Serve with oyster crackers and some crusty bread on the side.

This was absolutely delicious. It’s a simple recipe, but the leeks give it a deep, onion-y flavor that isn’t harsh at all, and the addition of the potatoes and cream make it thick and hearty.

It heated up really well as leftovers, too, and when we didn’t quite have enough for another two servings after a couple meals of enjoying it, we ate the last bit alongside grilled cheese sandwiches, which was also a winning combination.

And every time I grabbed a delicious bowl, I thought of Jim and his friendship with our family. The only thing that could have been better would have been eating the meal together.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 25, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish Pressure Cooker

You can cook a whole chicken—even under pressure

A whole chicken can be cooked quickly, along with sliced onions and bell peppers, to create a delicious, slightly spicy bird, perfect over rice, mashed potatoes or served inside a tortilla.
A whole chicken can be cooked quickly, along with sliced onions and bell peppers, to create a delicious, slightly spicy bird, perfect over rice, mashed potatoes or served inside a tortilla.

Last weekend, Joey attended a day-long bowling tournament.

The day before he left, he lamented that he didn’t think he would have time to throw a whole chicken we bought on the smoker and may have to toss it back in the freezer.

Instead, I offered to put it in the oven on my day alone and have it ready for dinner when he came home.

When he stepped in the door at the end of the day, I was happily putting fresh bedsheets on our mattress, feeling accomplished with my day of laundry.

“Did you decide not to do that chicken,” Joey asked, after we talked about his tournament.

Oops. I totally forgot about the chicken!

Joey waved off my mistake, but I immediately started searching online. I still had an hour or so before dinner time, and I knew just the appliance that could save me: my pressure cooker.

So, this week’s recipe isn’t about a deliciously slow-roasted chicken, basting in its own juices in my oven. Instead, it’s a quick, delicious and slightly spicy bird that managed to save dinner and give us plenty of leftovers for the week.

The recipe I used came from the blog “Chew Out Loud” by Amy Dong. You can find the original post at https://www.chewoutloud.com/instant-pot-whole-chicken/. I doubled every spice in my version and added bell peppers.

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Spicy Pressure Cooker Chicken

A whole chicken can be cooked quickly, along with sliced onions and bell peppers, to create a delicious, slightly spicy bird, perfect over rice, mashed potatoes or served inside a tortilla.
Course Main Course
Keyword bell pepper, black pepper, cayenne, chicken broth, chicken stock, garlic powder, Instantpot, paprika, pressure cooker, thyme, whole chicken, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 5 to 6 pound whole chicken
  • 3 teaspoons salt
  • 4 teaspoons paprika
  • 3 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
  • 2 teaspoons thyme
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 medium yellow onion sliced
  • 2 bell peppers any color, sliced
  • 1 cup chicken broth I subbed in a bouillon dissolved in water

Instructions

  • Prepare your whole chicken by removing the giblets, and patting it dry—inside and out—with paper towels.
  • In a small bowl, combine the salt, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne, thyme and black pepper, and stir to mix them together.
  • Using a knife, loosen the skin around the breast, back, legs and thighs of the chicken so you can slide a spoon or your hands inside, and evenly distribute about two-thirds of your spice mixture under the skin all over the bird. Press the rest onto the top of the skin and inside the bird, coating it as evenly as you can. Set the bird aside.
  • In your pressure cooker, line the bottom with the sliced onions and peppers and pour in the chicken broth. Place the prepared bird on top of the vegetables (it doesn’t matter which direction is up or down). Secure the lid and cook the bird on high pressure for 25 minutes, letting the steam naturally release for at least 15 minutes afterwards.
  • Temp the chicken. It should read at least 165 degrees in its thickest spots. If not, do another 15 to 20 minutes of high pressure cooking until it does.
  • Let the chicken rest for a few minutes before slicing or shredding it. Serve it with the vegetables over rice, mashed potatoes or in tortillas.

This was moist and tender, and we ended up making burritos, along with some Mexican rice. The chicken had just a bit of a kick to it, but it wasn’t so spicy that it knocked our socks off. If the heat scares you a little or you don’t think your tablemates are up to it, just decrease or eliminate the cayenne pepper.

Thanks to my pressure cooker this weekend, dinner was saved in the Young household. Now if I could just find the laundry equivalent to quick cooking, my future weekends might really be set.

This piece initially appeared in print on Nov. 16, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Be ready for an enchi’little’ heat with jalapenos this week

Jalapeno cream cheese chicken enchiladas are a great weeknight dinner. They're spicy, cheesy and make for fantastic leftovers.
Jalapeno cream cheese chicken enchiladas are a great weeknight dinner. They’re spicy, cheesy and make for fantastic leftovers.

Sometime last summer I found a huge bag of hatch green chiles that were on clearance in our local grocery store.

I immediately threw them in my cart, visions of cheesy enchiladas with mild, roasted chiles dancing in my head.

What I created was an abomination. I quickly realized how spicy the chiles were when Joey and I each took our first bite and nearly choked from the heat. I’m sure there are people who love playing chicken with the Scoville Heat Scale who would have absolutely loved them, but at the point that they even made Joey sweat, I knew they were way too spicy for either of us to consume. They ended up being deconstructed and made into another dish with lots of other ingredients to balance out the spice.

When I told Joey I was going to try a recipe for jalapeno enchiladas this week, he looked at me with a bit of skepticism that I wasn’t going to try to kill us both again. Luckily, though, we ended up with a dinner that was just the right amount of spicy and was really delicious.

The recipe I used is from the “All Recipes” website. You can find the original post at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/218031/jalapeno-cream-cheese-chicken-enchiladas. I added extra seasonings in my version.

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Jalapeno Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

Jalapeno cream cheese chicken enchiladas are a great weeknight dinner. They're spicy, cheesy and make for fantastic leftovers.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword cayenne, cream cheese, cumin, enchilada, garlic, garlic powder, jalapenos, Monterrey jack cheese, paprika, rotisserie chicken, shredded chicken, weeknight dinner, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 1 rotisserie chicken cooked and shredded (about 3 cups)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper divided
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder divided
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 small yellow onion diced
  • 2 or 3 jalapeno peppers diced (remove seeds and ribs for milder taste)
  • 4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 8 ounces cream cheese I used fat free
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 28 ounces green enchilada sauce
  • 7 to 8 flour tortillas
  • 8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese shredded

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a bowl, combine the shredded chicken, one teaspoon cayenne, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, salt and pepper, stirring to incorporate the ingredients. Set it aside.
  • In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and jalapenos, and saute until they are soft. Add in the minced garlic and saute for another couple of minutes until it just starts to brown.
  • Cut the cream cheese into one-inch cubes and add to the skillet, stirring to melt the cheese and combine the ingredients.
  • Once the cheese is melted, remove the pan from the heat, and add one-half teaspoon cayenne, one teaspoon garlic powder, paprika, cumin and the seasoned chicken. Stir until all the ingredients are well combined.
  • In a nine-by-13-inch pan, spread half of the enchilada sauce on the bottom.
  • Assemble the enchiladas by spreading a large spoonful of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Sprinkle the filling with about one tablespoon of shredded cheese, and roll the tortilla tightly, leaving the ends open. Place it seam-side down in the pan. Continue until all the filling is used, squishing the tortillas together as necessary.
  • Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas and top with the rest of the shredded cheese.
  • Bake, uncovered, for 30 to 35 minutes or until the cheese is lightly browned and bubbly. Let sit for five minutes before serving. Garnish with sour cream and pickled jalapenos, if desired.

These had just the right amount of heat, and it was balanced really well with the cheese, but you can also decrease the spice level a bit by leaving out the cayenne pepper. They were also fantastic leftovers, which I always appreciate on busy weeks.

If these still sound too spicy for you but you’re in the mood for enchiladas, I’d encourage you to search for “queso fresco enchiladas” on my website (spiceupkitchen.net). Those would easily fit the bill.

But if you decide to make up your own recipe, just be careful not to blindly trust mystery peppers at the grocery store. And if you do, let me suggest purchasing some good anti-perspirant, a big box of tissues and a gallon of milk to help you recover.

This piece first appeared in print on March 24, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Crockpot Main Dish Soup

‘Peas’ your tastebuds with a spicy crockpot soup

Spicy black-eyed peas are a great way to warm up on a cold day and are even better with some fresh cornbread on the side.
Spicy black-eyed peas are a great way to warm up on a cold day and are even better with some fresh cornbread on the side.

There is enough debate about black-eyed peas that there’s actually an article about them on the Library of Congress website.

It starts out very simply, asking, “Are black-eyed peas really peas?”

The answer is simple: “No.”

The article then goes into a very technical, scientific explanation of how peas, beans and legumes are classified and named. It’s great reading if you want to take a nap.

But I suppose no matter what their official classification, their presence in our house every New Year’s Day is a constant, as they are supposed to create good luck in the coming year.

Obviously, with all the craziness over the past year, I must have not cooked them quite right in 2021, so I’m hoping this year’s recipe was a better one.

I decided to go with a spicy version of black-eyed peas this year, mostly because I had some jalapeno peppers languishing in my crisper drawer already. You can leave those out and just add another bell pepper and cut out the cayenne if you want to try this recipe and you’re not much of a spice person, but if you like a little heat, you’re really going to like this one.

This recipe from Trisha Haas comes from the blog “Salty Side Dish.” You can find the original post at https://www.saltysidedish.com/slow-cooker-black-eyed-peas/. I added extra spices in my version.

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Crockpot Spicy Black-Eyed Peas

Spicy black-eyed peas are a great way to warm up on a cold day and are even better with some fresh cornbread on the side.
Course Main Course
Keyword bacon, bell pepper, black-eyed peas, cayenne, crockpot, cumin, garlic, ham, jalapeno, oregano, slow cooker, soup, spicy, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 16 ounces dry black-eyed peas
  • 3 beef bouillon cubes
  • 1 small yellow onion diced
  • 4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 bell pepper diced (any color)
  • 1-2 jalapeno peppers diced (remove the seeds for less kick)
  • 1 cup ham chopped
  • 6 slices bacon chopped
  • 3 teaspoons cumin
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Add the beef bouillon cubes to about 1 cup of hot water. Smash the cubes before adding them to a large crockpot along with five more cups of water, and then add all of the rest of the ingredients, as well. You do not have to do anything to prep the peas. Just dump them in.
  • Give the mixture a good stir and then cook on high for six hours or until the peas are cooked through.
  • This is fantastic served with fresh cornbread.

The photos on the recipe’s website show a mushier-looking soup without a lot of broth. I had a decent amount of broth with mine, so it’s really more about what you prefer with yours if you let it cook down even longer to really get the liquid thinned out. Personally, I love having broth with soups like this so I have something to soak up with my cornbread.

This was so, so easy, since it was as simple as just dumping everything in the crockpot. It literally took no cooking skills whatsoever, which I appreciate sometimes.

Now, with our bellies warmed, supposedly Joey and I are covered for 2022 and all the luck life can bring us. I’m not sure if it worked, but I have some leftovers in my freezer just in case we need a boost in the coming weeks.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 13, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish

You’ll be sweet on these roasted potatoes

Roasted sweet potatoes have just the right amount of sweetness to be a nice addition to dinner.
Roasted sweet potatoes have just the right amount of sweetness to be a nice addition to dinner.

Despite it being the week before Christmas, I have yet to make my normal pile of sweets.

I generally bake at least a double batch of peppernuts, and there’s often something that requires melting almond bark in my double boiler and spreading waxed paper on every open counter space.

I actually have a variety of baking chips and some nuts already sitting out, ready to be mixed into some delicious treats, but I just haven’t gotten into my Christmas baking spirit yet.

But I did have some nice sweet potatoes sitting on my counter that I decided needed to be part of dinner this past week, which I suppose loosely counts as holiday cooking.

I wanted to make them as a side dish, and while I was a little nervous that the brown sugar in the recipe I chose would produce something more dessert-like, I was pleasantly surprised. It had just enough sweetness to highlight the flavor of the potatoes but not enough to make you feel like adding some whipped cream on top.

I found this recipe on the blog “Wine and Glue.” It’s by Lisa Longley. You can find it at https://www.wineandglue.com/brown-sugar-roasted-sweet-potatoes. This was such a simple, straight-forward recipe that I didn’t change it from her original. Also, don’t let the cayenne pepper make you nervous, it just enhances the flavors rather than making the overall dish spicy.

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Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Roasted sweet potatoes have just the right amount of sweetness to be a nice addition to dinner.
Course Side Dish
Keyword brown sugar, cayenne, cinnamon, roasted, sweet potatoes

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons butter or margarine melted
  • 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • salt to taste
  • 2 large sweet potatoes peeled and cut in half-inch cubes

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 450 and line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy cleanup.
  • Dump the cubed potatoes and all the ingredients onto the pan and mix together with a spoon or your hands until the potatoes are evenly coated.
  • Spread the potatoes out evenly and bake about 20 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the potatoes are fork tender.

The caramelization on these sweet potatoes was really pretty, and while I rarely peel any kind of potatoes for recipes, I think that was a good step in this case.

We ate these alongside some perfectly cooked steaks, and it was a fantastic dinner. There were also leftovers that reheated well out of the fridge for a later meal.

I’m sure I’ll find myself mixing up plenty of sugar-filled treats sometime in the next few days, filling my plastic containers with all kinds of goodies to share.

The smell of anise, cloves and cinnamon filling the house is one of my favorite parts of the holidays. I wish you luck with your own holiday baking (and eating) and a very, merry Christmas.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 19, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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